A background art relating to the invention will be discussed by taking an ink jet record apparatus, a kind of liquid ejecting apparatus, as an example. The ink jet record apparatus produces comparatively low noise at the printing time and can record extremely small dots at a high density and thus nowadays is used for various types of print including color print.
The ink jet record apparatus ejects liquid ink in droplet form from nozzle openings. Since the nozzle openings are open, an ink solvent evaporates gradually through the nozzle openings in a non-use mode of the record apparatus. If the ink solvent evaporation amount is excessively large, a rise in viscosity occurs in ink in the vicinity of the nozzle openings and by extension clogging is caused to occur. Air bubbles may be mixed into a record head through the nozzle openings. In this case, there is a possibility that the mixed air bubbles may hinder the ink flow, causing a print failure to occur.
To prevent such trouble, the ink jet record apparatus is provided with a recovery mechanism for forcibly discharging ink in the record head through the nozzle openings. The recovery mechanism generally is made up of a cap member having a negative pressure hollow part, a suction pump communicating with the negative pressure hollow part, and a drive mechanism for moving the cap member. In the recovery operation of the recovery mechanism, first the cap member seals a nozzle opening face (namely, the formation face of the nozzle openings) and then the negative pressure pump is activated. As the negative pressure pump is activated, a negative pressure is applied in the negative pressure hollow part and ink in the record head is sucked through the nozzle openings.
As the drive mechanism, various configurations are proposed, one of which is a configuration using racks and a gear (for example, patent document 1). In the configuration, as shown in FIG. 14, a moving body 204 including a cap holder 202 having a cap member (nozzle cap) 201 placed on a tip face and a first rack 203 on a side is attached to the top of a slider 205 in a state in which it can be advanced and retreated. The cap holder 202 is attached in a state in which it can be moved in a back and forth direction relative to a main body part 206 of the moving body 204, and is urged in the advance direction by a spring 207. On the other hand, the slider 205 journals a gear 208 meshed with the first rack 203 in a rotatable state and is attached in a state in which it can be moved relative to a support 209. In particular, the slider 205 is attached in a movable state in a direction perpendicular to the move direction of the moving body 204. A spring 210 to urge the slider 205 is disposed in the support 209. In addition, a second rack 211 that can mesh with the gear 208 is also placed on the support 209.
In the configuration, when a carriage (carrier) 213 having a record head 212 is moved to the side of the slider 205, a part of the carriage 213 abuts the slider 205. If the carriage 213 further moves in the same direction in the abutment state, the slider 205 moves together with the carriage 213. As the slider 205 moves, the gear 208 placed on the slider 205 meshes with a second rack 211 placed in the support 209 and rotates. As the gear 208 rotates, the moving body 204 advances to the side of the record head 212 and the cap member 201 seals the nozzle opening face. When the carriage 213 moves in the direction away from the slider 205 from the seal state (which will be hereinafter referred to as capping state), the slider 205 moves in the same direction as the carriage 213 by the urging force of the spring 210. Also in this case, the gear 208 meshes with the second rack 211 and thus rotates in the opposite direction to that mentioned above. As the gear 208 rotates, the moving body 204 retreats in the direction away from the record head 212 and the capping state is released.
In the configuration, the move of the carriage 213 is used as the power to move the moving body 204, so that a dedicated drive source becomes unnecessary and the apparatus configuration can be simplified.
Patent document 1 mentioned above is JP-A-5-69551.